Sydney women sunbaking before wave death

A Sydney woman who survived after being washed out to sea at Avoca Beach yesterday clung to her dying friend for 20 minutes as lifeguards and young nippers rushed to help.

The two women, a 27-year-old from Bankstown and a 25-year-old from Casula, were apparently sunbaking on a rock ledge when a wave hit.

"They apparently had been sunbaking on the rocks and with the incoming tide and the surf increasing in the afternoon they had been washed off the rocks," Gosford City Council Lifeguard Supervisor Craig Healy told Nine News.

The pair were at an isolated rocky area of the NSW Central Coast beach, far from lifesaver patrols, but were spotted in the water by a passing kayaker.

The kayaker rushed to alert lifesavers on the beach and also urged two nippers who were in the water, aged 13 and 14, to help with the rescue.

A lifesaver on a jet ski managed to reach the women before the nippers but needed their help to steady the women on his rescue board.

The 25-year-old woman had been holding onto her friend and trying to save her throughout the ordeal, which lasted about 20 minutes, before they were taken to shore.